Other side of the camera – Part 2!

As a follow up to my post the other day I thought I would talk a little more about the “photoshop” part of being a portrait photographer. I know a lot of people don’t understand why most professional photographers (myself and lots others out there) charge more then Costco, CVS, etc for their prints. Well of course I can’t speak for anyone else but, part of my prices for the products I offer (reprints, digital negatives and canvas gallery wraps) reflect the time I spend in front of the computer working on the images I take. My goal is to make a better product, even better then what I can do with the camera.

I should mention that I don’t go photoshop crazy. I do like to use it to enhance the images that are coming straight out of the camera (SOFC). So here are some “before” and “after” images to help show you what I do and what are you are paying for (other than taking the photos)! 🙂

BEFORE SOFC: This little cute doesn’t need much help from me but the color could pop a bit more, let’s take advantage of this pink!

AFTER: Although the “before” image isn’t bad and what I did isn’t drastic, I think a little tweaking takes it to the next level. I lightened up the over all image, pumped up the color a touch and retouched out the plug on the wall. I should mention that I don’t always retouch out things like plugs, if I think it’s distracting I will but if it helps the balance of the image, makes the setting more “real” or plan ole doesn’t bother me, I’ll leave things like that in.

BEFORE SOFC: Although the exposure overall isn’t bad, the image isn’t cropped exactly how I wanted (FYI: I did take this image cropped this way planning on fixing it later) and the color is just a bit dull.

AFTER: A little bit goes a long way! Again, I knew when I took this image that I could fix the cropping later since I didn’t want to do it in camera and loose some of the image all the way around. I also bright up the color a touch, added a slight vignette on the edges and retouched out the light switch (I felt like it was distracting).

BEFORE SOFC: Nobody is prefect and this images is definitely under exposed! My bad!

AFTER: I lightened up the over all image and pumped up the color. Much better!

So I hope this was interesting and also helps explain a bit better of what you are getting when you hire me! 🙂